Food Facts and Tips

Choosing Wines - Tips for Beginners

There are thousands of wines, and hundreds of varieties, that present a huge challenge for a beginner who is just starting to learn to appreciate and enjoy wines.

There is a vast amount of information available about wine, but it is mostly relevant for experienced wine lovers.

How can a beginner get started in choosing wines that they are likely to like and appreciate?

This article is designed to provide the answers in two ways for identifying types of wine:

► Choosing wines by identifying the key factors that affect the style of wine.This is commonly referred to a ‘terroir’, that is the features of the soil, climate, grape variety and propagation of the grapes in the winery that influence the taste of the final product.

At a very high level there are four fundamental types of wines that influence the way they taste as a group or type.

• Fruity Wines,
• Soil Influenced and Regional Variety Wines,
• Climate Affected Wines and Innovative and
• Unique Wines.

► Choosing wines by grouping wines with similar taste. The wine buffs have developed various ways of describing and classifying the taste of wine. While the language can be hard to follow this system can be used to identify the style of wine you may like.

This system includes terms such as

• ‘spicy’,
• ‘fruity’,
• ‘smooth and rounded’,
• ‘sweet’, ‘pepper’,
• ‘dry’,
• ‘blackberry’,
• ‘nutty’ and
• 'smokey’.

The idea is that if you like a particular wine you can use this taste classification system to quickly find wines with similar taste characteristics.

Classification of Wines by Their Key Creative Element

There are four major types of wine for a beginner to choose:

Fruity Wines

These are wines that showcase the features of the grape. They are often sweet. A good example is Grenache, Garnacha and most of the Rieslings. The fruity taste dominates everything else. These wine are generally ‘young’ wines and don’t need to be aged. They tend to have low acidity and a rich aroma of fruit. Gamay and Zinfandel are other good examples, but these show more soil and regional influence.

Soil Influenced and Regional Wines

People who like a wine from a particular region will often like similar wines from the same area. The characteristics of the soils impart certain features to most wines from the same region.

Most people stick with what they like by choosing wines from the same locality. This also applies to country of origin, particular for small countries like New Zealand. Large countries such as Australia have huge variations in soils and climate. In this case it is better to stick to wine from a particular state such as Tasmania or a region such as Hunter Valley, Margaret River

Australia's famous Coonawarra Region, south of Adelaide in South Australia has its unique terra rossa soil. This consists of a limestone base covered by a thin layer of iron oxide–rich topsoil, that give it the red color. This soil type is only found in southern Australia. The Coonawarra is famous for its red wines.

Climate Dominated Wines

Sometimes this is a feature imparted by the wine maker or may take advantage of certain climate conditions to impart certain characteristics to the wine. In frost free areas the grapes may be left of the vines well into winter before being harvested to concentrate the sugars and intensify the flavors. Similarly cool-climate wines generally have unique tastes compared to more temperate areas. There are also the so-called ‘ice wines’ and other styles related to temperature and climate. Climate also strongly limits the range of grape varieties are most successfully grown in a particular region or area. The diurnal temperature throughout the day and other features of the climate impart unique features to the region’s wines. Shiraz from Tasmania is different from Shiraz from the Hunter Valley or Queensland in Australiaprimarily because of temperature and altitude differences.

Innovative and Unique Wines

These wine are unique for various reasons perhaps because they are produced from a rare variety or a rare combination of varieties. Some people like these unique wines. Sometimes it is due to the imagination and hard work of the wine maker to create something that stands out from the crowd.

Sometimes it is due to a unique ingredient, additive or simply the percentage of alcohol in the wine. Sometimes it is due to a unique process in the way the wine is made or matured. Many people enjoy these craft wines.

Organic and preservative free wines are a particular class of unique wines.

Conclusion

Try new things but stick to what you like and learn what features characterise these wines so that you can choose similar brands with the same features.

Choosing Wines by Type and Style

The image below summarises the broad range of wine types. The style of wine, whether it is sweet or dry is normally described on the label.

Choosing Wines by Taste Classification

For each broad type of wine, the wine experts have identified a group of taste characteristics. These are identified for various types of wines in the images below. Various terms such as those shown below are used to group wines with similar tastes:

• Savory Red, Smoke Tobacco Leather

• Fruity Red, Black Cherry Raspberry

• Fortified Wine, Nutty, Semi-Sweet

• Savory Red , Clay, Cured Meats

• Fruity Red, Strawberry Cherry

• Savory Red , Black Pepper Gravel

• Savory Red , Truffle Forest

• Dry White, Light Citrus Lemon

At the next level within these groups is an additional set of descriptors:

• Sweet

• Dry

• Spicy

• High Tannin

• Round (meaning smooth)

• Juicy

These terms further refine the taste for the wine.

Shown below are 100 common wines that have been classified using this taste system. They are shown in alphabetical order. However you can sort the table by taste category by clicking on the 'Taste Class' heading. Doing this will show three or four wines that share the same taste characteristcs and 10 or more wines within a higher level group.

List of Common Wine and Their Taste Category - (Click the Taste Category to Find Wines with Similar Tastes)

WHITE WINE TASTE CLASSES

SWEET RED WINE AND ROSE TASTE CLASSES

FORTIFIED WINE TASTE CLASSES

SPARKLING WINE TASTE CLASSES

FRUITY RED WINE TASTE CLASSES

SAVORY RED TASTE CLASSES